On November 19, the New Haven Unified School District Board of Education received a presentation from the districtÕs Equity Task Force, a group of students, teachers, administrators, and community members working to identify and recommend ways that the district can be a more equitable place for all.

Using data from student and teacher surveys and parent focus groups, the Task Force cited the need for culturally responsive teaching and culturally relevant curriculum and suggested two priority areas:

The first area being curriculum and instruction Ð including materials, learning modalities, BloomÕs Taxonomy (a classification of learning objectives considered to be foundational and essential to education) and assessment.

The second suggestion was that students should be provided with safe and adequate opportunities to address race, culture, gender orientation, and religion, including but not limited to: student voice, a process for democratic action, student perspectives to be hard and understood, and addressing habitual patterns of unintentional racism and bias.

At the same meeting, the Board denied a petition calling for the establishment of the Dashmesh Academy Charter School, on the grounds that the petition does not meet several Education Code requirements.